The first being its timeliness. As we face a president ial Election Year and prepare for it, it will be an insight that all of us can benefit from. The second is the speaker himself, our esteemed umw Professor Emeritus of history, william b. Crawley, who has just completed 50 years on the faculty of university of the mary washington. During that half century, dr. Crawley has contributed in innumerable ways, in significant ways. Certainly not least of all, the creation of our renowned Historic Preservation program and the creation of this amazing great lives series. But it is for his excellence in teaching that he is perhaps best known. And certainly to literally thousands of our students who have come through our halls. He has received our institutions highest honors in teaching, both from his colleagues and from his students. Many of whom through the years have voted him as the faculty member who has made the greatest impact upon their lives. Dr. Crawley through these years has become a true icon of this community. And so, it is with great pleasure that i introduce Professor William b. Crawley, who, drawing upon his 50 years of teaching political history, has truly learned and shared so much of his knowledge and will be sharing it again with us today, as he looks at the life of one of six highly interesting and sometimes controversial president s. And like many modern day president s, none is so straightforward as the story may recall, or that history may have told us. Dr. Crawley, would you please share with us now . Prof. Crawley thank you, lisa. Welcome, everyone, to todays lecture on Theodore Roosevelt, a pivotal figure in the history of the american presidency, and certainly one of the most colorful and dynamic figures ever to occupy that office. To understand roosevelts contribution as the first great president ial leader of reform and to appreciate how transformative his actions were, we need first to examine briefly the social, economic, and cultural environment in which he lived. Born in new york in 1858, roosevelt grew up in an era of rapid and vast growth in america, as the nation expanded dramatically in terms of geography, population, and, above all, wealth. The booming economy of that age was aided by the advent of inventions. It was, after all, the age of edison. And by the development of huge corporations, often growing to monopolistic proportions. And all underwritten philosophically by the prevailing popularity of social darwinism. Adherence to that philosophy, that is, applying darwins tenets of biological natural selection, that is, survival of the fittest, to the world of economics, business, and society in general, supported a government philosophy of laissezfaire, whereby businesses were allowed to develop unfettered by government regulations. One consequence was the accumulation of enormous wealth by some, with names like morgan, rockefeller, carnegie, vanderbilt, and others, socalled robber barons. But at the same time, the wealth was unevenly distributed, creating such vast inequalities. This situation inspired mark twain to term the era the gilded age, bright and shiny on the surface but increasingly built on a substratum of poverty. It was within this situation in that in the late 19th century, demands for reform again to arise. A movement promoted by the revelations of a group of activists known somewhat derisively at that time as the muckrakers. And it included sub prominent writers included such prominent writers as ida tarbell and her expose of a standard oil trust. And more widely known, upton sinclair, whose book, the jungle, focused on the unsavory, literally unsavory practices of the meatpacking industry. The first significant Reform Movement involved the populists led by Williams Jennings bryan in the 1890s. But that largely agrarianbased Movement Never gained sufficient support from middle and upperclass voters or from urban voters. So it was superseded around the turnofthecentury by a more broadly based movement known as progressivism. And the success of that movement in bringing about reform was largely owing to the energetic efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, often simply referred to as tr, or teddy. Roosevelt, it should be noted, was not a very likely candidate originally to become a reform leader. He was, in fact, born into one of the wealthiest, most aristocratic of old new york families. It did not seem likely that one born into such a status would emerge into such a leader for reform. He might well have been expected to be a firm conservative but that was not to be the case. Why wasnt it . Well, as a child, roosevelt had been week, sickly, troubled by asthma, terribly troubled by asthma, and weak eyesight. So he undertook to correct the shortcomings and worked hard to improve his health. He became a boxer. He became an ardent outdoorsman. He once spent a period of time working on ranch in the west. And his zest for physical activity, particularly of the belligerent kind, became legendary. It has become customary to explain roosevelts personality as being the result of overcompensation for his early physical inferiority. But whatever that case may be, Teddy Roosevelt certainly took great pleasure in the physical, the adventurous, and the dangerous. Surely, few men have ever been able to gratify their desires to such an extent. His life was indeed a full one, so let me just hit the highlights of it here at the beginning. He graduated from harvard in 1880, studied law afterwards at columbia, though did not receive his degree. He served one term in the near legislature. He served six years on the u. S. Civil service commission. He served two years as new york police commissioner. He served one year as assistant secretary of the navy. That might not seem like a terribly exciting job, but he made it exciting. It was he who ordered admiral dewey to the philippines in the spanishamerican war. And the cataclysmic and most important battle of that war, the battle of manila bay took place, as a result of deweys being ordered to the philippines. He also served one term as governor to new york. Now, in addition to all this, he was a wellknown author. He wrote a four volume study of the war of 1812. He wrote a book called, the winning of the west. He wrote a couple of popular biographies. He also worked out of the dakota territories as a rancher. And it was pretty well known, he served in the spanishamerican war, where he gloried in his role as the colonel who was the head of the volunteer outfit known as the rough riders. Much is known about those exploits because he wrote about them, so, many people learned about roosevelts activities and cuba, and someone at the time said the book was so selfcentered, roosevelt should have titled it, alone in cuba. In any case, he was a scholar, a genuine intellectual. It was a there he is as colonel roosevelt, rough rider. His life was certainly not without sorrow. He suffered one of the most grievous tragedies i think of any public figure i am aware of. That is his wife, to whom he was exceedingly devoted, died shortly after giving birth to their first child, alice. And within 24 hours of that, his mother died. So, both his wife and his mother were buried on the same day. Well, Theodore Roosevelt was far from dull. People called roosevelt a lot of names, his enemies attacked him, but nobody ever accused him of being dull. That, he was not. In fact, it was his robust lifestyle that made it surprising he became president because to get there, he took the office of Vice President. He was not all that excited about it. The reason he got the nomination to run with mckinley in 1900, as his Vice President a running mate, is mckinleys previous Vice President had died in office. The recent roosevelt was offered that job was because there were people in the Republican Party who wanted to get him out of new york, he was making a nuisance of himself in the eyes of conservatives. They said, how can we get rid of him in new york . Well, someone had a great idea of kicking him upstairs, so to speak. And after all, the vice presidency was harmless. Most people in the Republican Party were not bothered by that. One who was bothered was mark hanna. A firm, strong conservative, supporter of the business community. He said in discussing was both possible nomination, he said, dont any of you realize that there will only be one life between this madman and the white house . Well, apparently nobody cared. And then roosevelt was nominated. As i said, he was not enthusiastic about it. He said, quote, the vice presidency is a most honorable office, but for a young man, there is not much to do. He ran for Vice President with mckinley and he were elected. So he became Vice President of the United States. And soon there was very much for this young man to do, because on september 6, 1901, William Mckinley was assassinated. And Theodore Roosevelt at the age of 42 became the youngest president in American History. And still is. And i know that some would say, what about jack kennedy . Watch this one, it could be a trick question. I never try to trick questions, but it is a bit tricky. It could be a jeopardy question, i guess. If you ask who was the youngest person to be president , it is still Theodore Roosevelt. If it is phrased who is the youngest person ever elected president , that is still jack kennedy. So i thought you might want to keep that distinction in mind. In any case, when he became president , the a for mentioned mark hanna was furious and said, i told William Mckinley it was a mistake to nominate that wildman. I asked if he realized what would happen if he should die and now that cowboy is president of the United States. America waited expectantly to see what tr would do. One historian wrote, americans in the early 1900s did not easily overlook an agitator who wrought one of the nations most aristocratic names who could charm sunday school class or later regiment and who happened to be president of the United States. Americans probably expected some excitement and they were not to be disappointed. As mark twain said, Teddy Roosevelt was the tom sawyer of the political world, always hunting for a chance to show off. One of his cabinet members put it this way, he sent a message to roosevelt, on roosevelts 46th birthday. The message read as follows. You have made a very good start in life and your friends have great hopes for you when you grow up. He was 46. Well, surely he sought attention and he always wanted to be the center of attention. It has been said that roosevelt was the kind of person who always wanted to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral. My favorite story to illustrate this is, may be apocryphal, but here is the story anyway. The story is on one occasion, roosevelt came up to a friend of his and said i had the most wonderful dream last night. I dreamed that i died and went to heaven. And on the first night, the celestial choir sang. It was magnificent. There were 1000 sopranos. 1000 altos. 1000 basses. And the friend said, what about the tenors . To which roosevelt replied, i sang tenor. So, you get the idea. Well, what then was this Progressive Movement about under roosevelt . Lets look first at the domestic accomplishments and we will go through these rather briefly. The thing to remember as i talk about these different elements of his domestic program, the important thing to bear in mind is that they were pathbreaking. They were, they constituted such a, in many cases dramatic break with the american past, particularly in terms of government regulation. I used to ask my students, at this point, how big a role did the United States government play in the daily lives of americans at that time . What did the federal government do . They were usually stumped by it. And this is true, the federal government was responsible for national security, military, that is true. But that did not affect people on an everyday basis, most people. So, im saying, how did the average american come into contact with the federal government . Normally, before this era, before roosevelt . Well, the answer is, the government delivered the mail. The postal service. But aside from that, there was not much involvement or interference from the federal government with the daily lives of americans. This began to change. The point is that is what roosevelts presidency marked such an interesting and pivotal break with the past. It increased government regulation. It increased role of the federal government. I will talk about specifics, but that is the overarching point of all this. There were several areas in which roosevelt was active. And one was business regulation. You know, the dictates of social darwinism, laissezfaire theories, government didnt get involved when a company ran its business. But there were calls for reform and change, to try to correct some of the inequalities. Much of it dealt with railroads. Again, i asked my students, why so much about railroads . Well, think about it. If you had anything to ship in country at that time, how are you going to send it . Unless you live a river, ship by boat. You had to use railroads. So, there was a lot of focus on trying to bring regulation to railroads. The first major thing that did that was the elkins act, passed in 1903. No need to get into specifics with this. Suffice to say, this act prohibited the giving of rebates by railroads, that is, refunds to large shippers, which meant large shippers got kickbacks and small people had to pay full freight. Literally full freight. And so, the point is, it was a different concept to have a government step into private economy and say, these private businesses can be regulated that way. More on that sort of thing later. In the realm of conservation, here too, this is one of trs , always one of his main interests. He was able to secure package of act,hing called the which provided for the proceeds from the sale of government lands should be used for federal irrigation projects. But the overall picture is the government was involving itself for the first time in conservation. Most people up till that time believed the country is so big and wealthy, so no need to conserve. Conservation was not on anybodys mind. But it was on roosevelts mind. And this is one thing that he supported. And again, a pathbreaking president here. Also, there was the problem of regulating trusts, these giant monopolies. You dont need to think too much to figure out why the existence of monopolies could be detrimental to the consumer. Allowing prices to rise and so forth. So, one of the big Progressive Movements was some kind restrictions of the trusts. And indeed, one of the pictures i remember from my high school textbook, i remember a cartoon showing roosevelt carrying a big stick. That was one of his mottos, speak softly and carry a big stick. And the cartoon showed roosevelt with a big stick bashing the trusts. Well, his idea was not so much to break up the trusts, that will come later with wilson. But his idea was to regulate them, to do something to restrict some of the more damaging monopolistic practices. And so, what could he do . Well, it was unlikely that he could get the kind of law passed that he wanted. So what he did was to use what was available at the time, which was the sherman antitrust act. That had been passed in 1890, but had rarely been used, because big business generally controlled the government during those years, the republican era of big business and so on. And so, the act had not really been used very effectively, if at all during that time. By and large it had not been used very much, certainly since the mid1890s. Well, roosevelt instructed his attorney general to bring a suit against one of the biggest trusts, maybe the biggest railroad trust, which was the Northern Securities corporation which controls essentially all of the rail traffic in the west, particularly the northwest. And so, they brought a suit against Northern Securities, calling for its breakup, on account of its monopolistic practices. And, sure enough, the courts agreed, and Northern Security was indeed broken up, setting, as i say it, that precedent. And, subsequently, other monopolies were broken up as well. Standard oil trust, American Tobacco company, and others. Well, as a result of these activities, his vigorous pursuit trusts and his conservation work, and so on, roosevelt was acquiring a very large following, and great popularity. So, that is not to say that everybody, the capitalists and monopolists themselves of course were not on his side, but the American Public really was entranced by roosevelt. And so in 1904, he was ready to seek the presidency in his own right. Which he did, but he did one thing that he probably wished he had not done, probably. And that is he promised that if elected, he would not seek another term, which he could have done there. There was no prohibition against it. Franklin d. Roosevelt proved as he was elected four times. But theodore promised he would not seek another term if elected. And he was elected. He was elected by a landslide. I bet very few people in this audience could tell me who he ran against. I scarcely remember it myself every time i talk about this. His name was alton b. Parker. As i have said to my students, not a household by name by any means, saving his own household. He was overwhelmingly defeated and set at the time when roosevelt sought the presidency in 1904 and was elected by acclamation, an overwhelming victory. Once he was president in his own right he became an even more aggressive advocate for progressivism and he promised a square deal for the american people. One thing he did to get the square deal, was to address again, the railroad problem. And this may seem i think it my students ao petty sort of thing, but it was not. It may seem not a terribly important thing, but it was. It turned out that the elkins act was not being ineffectively enforced. Because what happened was, that in order to get a change, in order to address orto redress some of these grievances of the elkins act, cases had to go to the court system. The courts were notoriously conservative and often decided in favor of businesses, as opposed to the consumer. And so, what roosevelt wanted was the ability, the government to have the ability to actually set the rates that railroads could charge, which was a tremendous departure in practice from previous practices. That was what was embodied in the hepburn act. And this was a far cry from laissezfaire government. I mean, here you have the government wanting the right with the interstate commerce commission, the icc, which had been established earlier, the right to actually fix the rates railroads could charge without going through to the court system. Now, by application, the precedent was there that the government might be able to control, control may be too strong a word, but to affect other businesses by setting regulations and so forth without going first through the court system. Bringing us to another of roosevelts major contributions. I do not know if i said, anyway, i should have said this was embodied in the hepburn bill. I am not sure i said that, but in any case, the hepburn bill. But the other another significant roosevelt achievement was the passage of what today we would call Consumer Protection laws. I am not sure they were called that then. But there were a couple of these that were particularly important. One was the federal Meat Inspection act. If you know what the jungle is about you might assume this was influenced by the popularity of that novel. But what it did was provide for federal inspection of all Meat Products involved in interstate commerce. And a second similar act and a second, similar act was the pure food and drug act which permitted the selling of products particular the canned and bottled goods under false or misleading labels. This was important because a lot of patent medicines were widely used and very popular, and they did oftentimes, the bottled ones did relieve pain and did help, but the problem was it did not say on the label but in regards to alcohol i think almost 100 proof. The people who drank it did indeed feel better, but only briefly, and it was certainly not a curative. So, with this said, you have to bottle things and label things truthfully as to what is in the product. And these were very important Consumer Protection laws. Now, with regard to the major social issues of the day, roosevelts performance was, i think we have to say mixed. Concerning womens suffrage, for example, he was an early advocate, going all the way back to 1880 when in his senior thesis at harvard he had written, i think there can be no question that women should have equal rights with men. That is a pretty direct statement. Is it not . And while president , he continued to support womens suffrage, and even included in his 1912 platform. I will get to that briefly in amendment in a minute. But his public support was less than fervent. For example he once said, personally, i believe in womens suffrage, but i am not an enthusiastic advocate of it because i do not regard it as a very important matter. On another occasion, he was even more condescending, saying, we hear much about womens rights, as to that, decent men should be thinking about womens rights all the time. And while the men are doing that, the women should be attending to their duties. Well, in any case, he did not live to see the passage of the 19th amendment, the womens suffrage amendment, dying six months before it was passed by congress in june of 1919. Now, his views on racial matters were even more problematic. On the one hand, he earned the praise of progressives and that hatred of southern segregationist by inviting work inviting booker t. Washington to the white house for dinner. And this was regarded as an audacious act at that time. But on the other hand, his record was besmirched by his role in the brownsville affair in which he summarily and on very flimsy evidence, issued dishonorable discharges to an entire company of black soldiers, segregated, of course, well, they were exonerated decades later, not that it did those individuals any good at the time there were exonerated in the 1970s. So his record i think was mixed. To a large extent, trs domestic actions were overshadowed by more dramatic events in the area of foreign affairs. Notably his aggressiveness, his tuousness,this impe his bullying, and lease lovely lovely of all, his arrogant attitude toward latin american countries. A classic example involves the building of the panama canal. Which was perhaps in the long run the most noteworthy of the roosevelt presidency. To examine that complex machinations of the panama canal would take more time then we have for this lecture so i must summarize this convoluted story of politics, diplomacy and international intrigue. It included mainly the u. S. And columbia, of which panama was a part at that time. The gist of it is after much negotiation, a treaty was written by the u. S. And columbia, by terms of which the u. S. Would be permitted to build a canal across panama in exchange for 10 million and the annual rental of 250,000. But before it could be finalized by respective governments, columbia balked, and refused to ratify the agreement claiming it would be a rejection of their sovereignty which was true. , what he was furious believed to be one of the greatest project in the history of civilization. The truth is, roosevelt was generally contemptuous of Latin Americans anyway. Referring to the club he and government as the quote contemptible Little Creatures in andta and as foolish homicidal corruptionists, he asserted we may have to give a lesson to these jackrabbits. Politically correct, he was not. If anyone dared to mention columbia had every legal right to do what their country what they pleased, roosevelt would be furious. Law, and he declared i want that canal bill. Raging, to talk of columbia as a responsible power to be dealt with as we will deal with holland or belgium or switzerland or denmark is absurd. More like a group of sicilian bandits, you cannot make an agreement with columbia rulers anymore then you could nail jelly to the wall. I did my best to get them to act straight then determined i would do what ought to be done, without regard to them. What that turned out to be a b was a devious involvement in arranging for panama to declare its independence from columbia, what appears to have been roosevelt surreptitious roosevelts surreptitious support. Details of this episode remain murky, but the consensus is roosevelt did have a hand in conniving for the achievement of panamanian independence. Once panama declared its independence, the u. S. Moved immediately to recognize the new nation and signed a treaty that gave the u. S. The right to attend the canal zone across the new country. Works to began on this and omers on this enormous project, and was completed in 1914, on the eve of world war i. One residue of the affair was the lingering colombian resentment toward the u. S. , understandable. Roosevelt regarded club you as confirming that nicest standards of governmental ethics, but on 1911, heccasion in boldly declared, i took the canal zone, and let congress debate. And while the debate goes on, the canal does also. In any event this was not roosevelts finest hour and certainly not his most admirable one. Was the matter of the socalled roosevelt corollary to that Monroe Doctrine, a source of further contention with latin america. The original Monroe Doctrine had proclaimed in 1824 the latin american was no longer open to european colonization a , unilateral proclamation i gone had gonemation that unchallenged and intervening in intervening decades. During the end of the century when england and germany threatened to intervene in latin american countries to collect debts, roosevelt came to the point of issuing this corollary to the effect that latin american nations and financial troubles with overseas creditors the u. S. Would intervene, take over the customs houses and pay off the debts, thereby keeping european nations out of the western hemisphere, in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine. Despite latin american opposition to such actions the u. S. Did intervene in several instances, notably in the dominican republic. Cuba was especially resistant to american intervention, an attitude which predictably sent the volatile tr into a tirade saying this. Just at this moment i am so angry with that infernal little cuban republic, that i would like to wipe its people off the face of the earth. We had wanted from them is that they would behave themselves, be prosperous and happy, so we would not have to intervene. Now, low and behold, started and utterly unjustifiable and pointless revolution, that we have no alternative except to intervene. Well, latin american nations tended to be skeptical or downright opposed to such intervention, regarding it as an infringement on their sovereignty. And particularly fearful of the fearful that the u. S. Would use it as an opportunity for annexation, a motive roosevelt vehemently denied. In actual operation, the corollary did not result in prolonged american involvement and certainly not an annexation, but it did lead to distrust and hatred which many south american republics had toward the United States for many years until the corollary was officially reversed by Franklin D RooseveltsGood Neighbor policy. A more positive example of roosevelts expansive outlook and Foreign Policy concern his efforts to bring an end to the longrunning russojapanese war. He invited delegates to meet in portsmouth, new hampshire, which resulted in a treaty during the bring the war to the end. It was for those efforts that roosevelt was awarded the nobel peace prize. I can say to you he is undoubtedly the most unlikely recipient ever to receive a peace prize, given his naturally naturally bellicose nature and aggressive tendencies. It was during roosevelt presidency the u. S. Began to establish itself as a world power. Roosevelt attempted to illustrate that emergence through a symbolic and controversial effort known as the voyage of the great white fleet. His idea was to send the entire u. S. Naval fleet on and around the world tour. When congress indicated it would not fund such an adventure, roosevelt came up with an audacious strategy. He let it be known he had enough money in his current budget to send the fleet halfway around the world, which he fully intended to do. And if congress wished their return, they would have to appropriate the necessary funds to do it. Well, the ploy worked. And off went the ships, painted white over there usual gunmetal gray. Critics feared the worst, particularly when the ships visited japan. There was considerable hostility at the time. The fleet was warmly welcomed, even in japan. While it was of no particular strategic importance, the voyage was significant in illustrating americas increasing world prominence, which would soon be even more evident in world war i. As his term neared its end, it was clear that roosevelt could have been elected easily in 1908. Word given inis 1904, a mistake, he realized, he did not run. Instead he opted for an african safari, which prompted one of his opponents to say he hoped that every lion would do its duty. Before he left, roosevelt was careful to handpick his successor, a man who he thought will continue to carry on his progressive programs, the man he chose was his friend William Howard taft. It was a choice he would live to regret. Shortly before leaving office, tr provided insight into his future plans. In a poignant letter to his daughter, in which she wrote every now and then, people come to me, tell me our countrymen face the problem of what it will do with its expresident s. I answer them there will be one expresident about whom they need not give themselves the slightest concern, for he will do for himself, without any outside assistance. And i add they need waste no sympathy on me, that ive had of any man my age in the world and i have enjoyed myself in the white house more than i have ever known the president to enjoy himself, and im going to enjoy myself thoroughly when i leave the white house. And what is more, continue as long as i possibly can, to do some kind of work that will count. As it turned out roosevelt did not accomplish any particularly great achievements after all, though not for lack of effort. It soon became apparent that tr was restless in retirement. After all, there were only so many elephants to kill. He had become increasingly disappointed in what he perceived as a lack of progressive commitment by his successor and soontobe former friend president taft. His pentup zeal was evident in what was probably the bestknown speech of his entire career. The oft quoted man in the arena speech, that he delivered in paris, in 1910, two years after living the white house. You have probably heard it before, parts of it. Let me quote part of it because i think it eloquently reveals roosevelts basic character. I think you will agree that it is a powerful speech and that it is eloquently expressed. Pre. Roosevelt it is not the critic who counts, he said, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or whether the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man he who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds. Who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions, who spends himself on a worthy cause. Who at the best nose at the end the tribe of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who neither know victory nor defeat. Prof. Crawley fearing that progressivism was withering under taft and no doubt missing the excitement of the presidency , roosevelt decided to run again in 1912 as a candidate of the hegressive party, which established popularly known as , the bull moose party, after roosevelt declared himself be as moose. As a bull but in that election the split of votes between him and the incumbent taft permitted the election of the democrat woodrow wilson. It was during this campaign that tr was the victim of an attempted assassination. Giving a speech, he was hit by an assassins bullet. It resulted in a superficial wound and typical of roosevelts bravado, he continued the speech. I think most people having been shot, no matter how superficially would have probably called at aday. But not the inimitable tr. After 1914, as the great war in europe waged, roosevelt was an ardent advocate of american intervention, no surprise. He petitioned thenpresident wilson to let him raise a volunteer regiment, a la the rough riders, to go and fight in europe. Wilson declined. Incidentally, roosevelts youngest son quinton was killed in the war which some believed diminished roosevelts belligerent attitude. In any case, by the time he died in early 1919, in his late 50s, i believe roosevelt had done , enough to secure his legacy as one of americas greatest president s. So, what was that legacy . Theodore roosevelt made many contributions to the Progressive Movement. It is likely it would never have flourished without his energetic leadership. The laws that he passed illustrated his ability to bring about reform through the legislative process. Certainly kids greatest service to the Progressive Movement is not to be seen in any one law, or set of laws that were passed, but seen in the impetus he gave to reform in general. He served most effectively as a popularizer, as a spark plug for reform. Summit summed up, roosevelt was the greatest publicity man progressivism ever had. I suggest roosevelts service to the nation go beyond that, to include a new concept of what the office of the presidency should be. In trs view, the president to president should be a true leader, not just a passive follower of the american people. In that sense, roosevelt may be considered the first truly modern president. In carrying out his conception of the active presidency, roosevelt was uniquely wellequipped by his personality. His flamboyant, robust, spirited attitude, won for him and an admiration seldom granted to any National Political leader before or since. He was the man with whom the american man could identify. A popular poem, trs making a senator, chasing a bear, busting a trust and dragging it from its lair. They are calling tr a lot of things, the men in the private car, the what the people, but the day coach the day coach , likes tr. As one observer put it, he was a great big boy. By his personality you cannot resist the man. Historians agreed with the popular feeling of his contemporaries, that Teddy Roosevelt was unique in modern American History. As one of them put it, if the rough rider was not the greatest of president s, he was entirely the noisiest. He carried a big stiff stick all right, but the soft speaking resembled the bellowing of a bull moose during mating season. He became an iconic figure partly as the result of the eponymous teddy bear. That story began with an alabama bear hunt. Great hunter that he was, great outdoorsman that he was, he had for some reason expressed a desire to go on a bear hunt in alabama. Apparently in the mountains of alabama there were bear to be had, to be shot, so he went. To his disappointment, i guess the first outing they found no , bears. So his host not wanting him to be disappointed, believe it or not, found a bear somehow. And apparently tethered the bear to a tree, so that when roosevelt came back and saw this, he could shoot the bear. He did come back and did see the bear. But as you can imagine with any sense of sportsmanship, he did not shoot it, but ordered that the bear be released. Well this story made the rounds and it was heard by, among others, a brooklyn candy store owner who also sold toys handmade by him and his wife. And so they were inspired to make a brown plush bear with button eyes, to put in his store window, and he labeled it, teddys bear. And now to read you the the unfolding legend from a prominent historian. From that modest start the most loved and famous toy in the country was launched. No nursery could be without it. It became the security blanket for millions of children, including the ones whose father had inspired it. The republicans took the symbol of a teddy bear to their hearts and over time it became the standard decoration for their rallies. At dinner in the white house where trs closest friend and associates gathered to bid him farewell as he prepared to leave the presidency, teddy bears were arranged at each place. And at his death, a poem appeared, called the teddies weep. Tree,h a fading christmas there long official keeping i , heard the little teddy bears in the stillness softly weeping. We join them in their sad lament, traditions in their keeping, for he who meant so much to us, their patron saint, is sleeping. In his book, president ial greatness, noted historian Thomas Bailey summed it up. He wrote, roosevelt was a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the morality, great controversialist and a great showman. He dominated the era of justice. Conversations. Sometimes people wondered other they had an administration or a circus. He was a great egoist, a great exhibitionist, great headline catcher, so much so some critics felt he degraded the dignity of his high office. But the masses loved him and he proved to be a popular idol, a great vote getter, a consummate politician, and opportunist, and at the same time a great leader. I would say in conclusion, Theodore Roosevelt, if he had been better balanced, less the perpetual adolescent he wouldve been perhaps a greater man and , maybe a greater president , but he would not have been Teddy Roosevelt. One of his friends said, you have to hate the colonel an awful lot not to love him. Thank you. From George Washington to george w. Bush, every sunday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern, we feature the presidency, a weekly series exploring president s, their policies, and legacies. You are watching American History tv all weekend and every weekend on cspan three. The cspan cities tour travels the country, exploring the american story. More 2011, we have been to than 200 communities across the nation. Our staff is staying close to the to the due to coronavirus. Next, a look at one of our city visits. Announcer established in 1926, u. S. Route 66 was one of the original highways in the u. S. Highway system, carrying motorists over 2400 miles from chicago, illinois to santa monica, california. In their book, a matter of